One More Huddle
A fierce competitor on the football field, Mike Reily ’64 lost a courageous battle with Hodgkin’s disease just weeks after his graduation. This fall, his classmates and teammates return to campus to celebrate his legacy. On a sunny June day, Mike Reily ’64 left his infirmary bed and slipped into an aisle seat alongside his…
Maximum Connectivity
“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN MOTIVATED BY RESEARCH THAT HAS AN EVERYDAY USE IN REAL LIFE.” —JEANNIE ALBRECHT Dropped calls have been a nuisance for about as long as cell phones have been in existence. But with mobile devices handling increasingly complex operations—from text messaging to video chats to emails with huge attachments—network connectivity is more important…
9 Things You Should Know About the Universe
1. Hubble changed everything. As recently as 1923, it was widely assumed that the Milky Way galaxy comprised the whole universe. That year, while still in his early 30s, Edwin Hubble discovered a Cepheid variable (a star whose distance can be measured solely by its pulsation) in the large spiral nebula in the constellation Andromeda….
Words of Wisdom
Commencement 2011 Highlights It’s not the circumstances you encounter. It is who you are. Will you manifest your truth? And this is the real challenge. I’m here to tell you now that life is not about the big fights, the big battle, your great destination. Life is about the small moments every single day— those…
Red Flags or Red Herrings?
Developmental psychologist Susan Engel offers an antidote to the anxiety that seems to pervade parenting today. Rosie was a handful by every measure. Bossy and stormy, the 4-year-old, who soaked up adult phrases like a sponge, would thrash about the house and scream things at her mother like, “You are not the boss of me!…
In Their Own Words
How 9/11 changed the life paths of three members of the Williams community. —As told to Denise DiFulco Psychiatrist Kevin Kelly ’72 changes careers and helps to change the culture of the NYC Fire Department My wife is a lawyer, and after 9/11 she volunteered her services to families of victims. That brought her in…
Maximum Connectivity
“I’ve always been motivated by research that has an everyday use in real life.”—Jeannie Albrecht Dropped calls have been a nuisance for about as long as cell phones have been in existence. But with mobile devices handling increasingly complex operations—from text messaging to video chats to emails with huge attachments— network connectivity is more…
Devils in the Details
Bethany McLean ’92 says we need to be more cynical of corporate America. A betrayal of responsibility and a betrayal of possibility. That’s how financial journalist Bethany McLean ’92, in a 2005 C-Span interview, described her understanding of how corporate culture in America had become “corrupted by this get-rich-quick notion: Make your quarterly earnings…
Williams Wins 15th Directors’ Cup
For the 13th year in a row and the 15th in the 16 years it’s been awarded, Williams has won the Directors’ Cup, given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the best all-around athletics program for team performance in 18 sports. The Ephs claimed victory with nine teams placing in…
Soccer Season Standouts
With four straight conference championships to build on and 2010 Second Team All-New England Sachi Siegelman ’12 (pictured, left) just one of a talented group of returning players, the women’s soccer team has set its sights high for the 2011 season. Other standouts this year include Siegelman’s co-captains Brett Eisenhart ’12 (a 2010 First Team…
Tour de Ephs
Cyclists JJ Augebraun, Antonio Lorenzo and Christopher Fox, all Class of 2011, stopped in Williamstown Aug. 11-13 during the final leg of the Tour de Ephs, their 62-day, 4,200-mile ride from Seattle, Wash., to Provincetown, Mass. The goals of the tour: to meet alumni, see the country and raise money for the North Adams, Mass.-based…
Grant Launches Online Prendergast Archive and Study Center
The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded the Williams College Museum of Art a $150,000 Museums for America grant to support the museum’s efforts to raise the profile of and provide visibility for the Prendergast artworks and archives. The college museum is home to the world’s largest repository of works by the Prendergast…
“Americans see function. They do not see shape…
Our culture does not tell us about shape. Our culture does not give us enough words to express fully the sensory realm. And there’s a reason for that. … For 200 years, the primary aesthetic experience in America was verbal, not visual. … American culture is historically Puritan. … Our mood, culturally, begins in the…
New Trustees on Williams Board
The Williams College Board of Trustees welcomed three new members in July: term trustees O. Andreas Halvorsen ’86 and Elizabeth Beshel Robinson ’90 and alumnielected trustee Gregory H. Woods ’91. Halvorsen ’86 is co-founder and CEO of Viking Global Investors, an investment management firm with offices in Greenwich, Conn., New York, Hong Kong, London and…
Bicentennial Medalists Honored
The college has selected five alumni to receive 2011 Bicentennial Medals for distinguished achievement in any field of endeavor. The medals were to be presented during Convocation on Sept. 10. Michael F. Roizen ’67, chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic and a distinguished anesthesiologist and internist, was to give the principal convocation address on…
In Song
One minor correction to the article “Eph Cappella” (June 2011): The house octet contest did not “take a hiatus” in the early ’50s, though the flood tide of rock and roll was building. I led the Beta house octet from 1951 to 1955, and we won the award twice in those years. We also expanded…
Community
Kudos to Williams President Adam Falk for articulating the efforts to build community at Williams (“The Community We Aspire to Be,” June 2011). Too often the idea of diversity has betrayed itself. Instead of focusing on a true diversity of ideas, background and culture, institutions have settled for superficial diversity based on sex and race…
Teaching and Scholarship
A highlight of my week in the summer involves each Tuesday at noon heading over to the Science Quad. There a couple hundred students and faculty partake of that well-known stimulant to intellectual thought—pizza—before piling into Wege Auditorium for a research talk by a science faculty member. Few events say more about Williams. The room…